Suspected local and foreign Islamic militants have been blamed for a steady stream of attacks on security forces in Waziristan in recent months.

Suspectedterrorists fired assault rifles at a roadside military post in a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan, wounding one soldier, an intelligence official said on Sunday.

Troops retaliated against the attack lateon Saturdayin North Waziristan, firing machine guns in the direction from which the assault came, but it was not known whether the attackers suffered any casualties, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Suspected local and foreign Islamic militants —allegedly linked with the Afghan Taliban militia and Al-Qaeda—have been blamed for a steady stream of attacks on security forces in North Waziristan in recent months.

On Friday, two suicide attackers detonated an explosives-laden car near a military convoy on a road linking Miran Shah, North Waziristan's main town, with the nearby city of Bannu, killing four soldiers and wounding seven, officials said.

Security officials have said that hundreds of Arab, Central Asian and local tribal terrorists operate in the North and the adjoining South Waziristan tribal regions, which both border Afghanistan.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its campaign against terrorism, has deployed about 80,000 troops in its border regions along Afghanistan to hunt down militants.

The resistance has escalated this year, and about 400 people, mostly terrorists but also about 60 security forces, have died in the violence.